Critics reviews

La Pointe Courte does not just foretell of the long and accomplished career of Agnés Varda, but also hints at the coming New Wave she would spearhead... That is Varda for you: always, even as a 20-something rookie, on the leading edge of something incisive and wholly new.

n the hands of a less sophisticated director, the native’s home-cooked meals and manual labor surely would have been made to seem quaint or naïve. But Varda’s patience behind the camera affords her subjects the respect they deserve... [She] watches every detail in La Pointe Courte with curiosity, kindness and a relentless sense of wonder.

Despite the fact that Varda was inspired by a literary work, the film is startlingly cinematic, relying wholly on the visual as a source of meaning. Its script is not "wordy," even though some of its most beautiful scenes borrow colorful phrases and dialogue directly from the locals (in one, an older woman talks about her life, and exclaims that she has already "shit out half of it"). The film is deliberately composed, and Varda demonstrates early on her intentionality and control of the frame.

How unusual to see a woman's perspective on love presented so plainly as Varda does in La Pointe Courte. Released in 1955, the film is radical in its deconstruction of feminine desire and ennui.

La Pointe Courte is a stunningly beautiful and accomplished first film. It has also, deservedly, achieved a cult status in film history as, in the words of historian Georges Sadoul, “truly the first film of the nouvelle vague.”